About 3 weeks ago we released TMS WEB Core v1.7 Ancona. One of the new features was Miletus, our new framework to create desktop applications with TMS WEB Core. It was exciting to see that many of you showed interest in Miletus, so we'll take a look at what you can expect in the future.

We launched Miletus with Windows 32-bit and 64-bit support, but our goal was already set from the beginning: a cross platform alternative that is based on TMS WEB Core. To make this possible, research work has already started before the TMS WEB Core v1.7 release. We are happy to share that as of today here in the labs, we can already target MacOS and Linux!

Starting from TMS WEB Core 1.8 you'll be able to select the MacOS and Linux target. This will mean that you can create MacOS and Linux applications on Windows without an additional connection to the target systems! After the proper setup, you'll only need to copy your created application to the operating system of your choice. Keep in mind that for distribution it's recommended to sign your application and that can only be done on the target operating systems.

Miletus is not meant to be an Electron replacement, but rather something to co-exists next to our current Electron support as an alternative to those who want:

You can take full advantage of web technologies combined with native operating system level operations:

There's a lot of native functionality exposed already. Access to the local file system, operating system menus and notifications, drag and drop functionality, global shortcuts just to name a few. We are always looking to extend the native support based on your feedback! 

You don't necessarily need a DB backend running, you can easily connect to a local DB file or a cloud DB service just like in a VCL or FMX application! For cross platform targets, the following databases will be supported: SQLite, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, mySQL. This if of course only the beginning, we already have plans to expand the supported DB list!

The power of HTML5 and CSS3 is at your disposal. There are a huge amount of libraries and templates available for web applications that you can not only reuse in your Miletus application but with their help you can also create visually more pleasing user interfaces! 

And did you know? It's easy to migrate your existing TMS WEB Core application to Miletus. Watch this hands-on video from our colleague Dr. Holger Flick, who explains the process in detail:

After the TMS WEB Core v1.8 release the next step will be to bring Miletus to TMS WEB Core VSC too. We already did some further research in this area, and our results are promising to bring a truly cross platform experience!

But that's not the only long-term goal: based on the feedback we got, we'll also look to add more DB support! 

As mentioned earlier, we have full control over this technology which means we can extend the palette of components and functionalities without depending on 3rd party solutions while maintaining the advantages listed above. We are eager to learn what you'd like to see in future versions!